Conducting three experiments in both real and virtual environments, Radvansky’s subjects – all college students – performed memory tasks while crossing a room and while exiting a doorway.

In the first experiment, subjects used a virtual environment and moved from one room to another, selecting an object on a table and exchanging it for an object at a different table. They did the same thing while simply moving across a room but not crossing through a doorway.

Radvansky found that the subjects forgot more after walking through a doorway compared to moving the same distance across a room, suggesting that the doorway or “event boundary” impedes one’s ability to retrieve thoughts or decisions made in a different room.

Go read the rest. Me losing track of my coffee cup was a running joke when I was Sir Topham Hat at Crack O’ Dawn Trucking. Nowadays, I just drink my coffee on the way into work. Problem solved! Now…where the hell is my cell phone? Perhaps I should just remain seated.